Department: Passenger Transport

Copyright: DLR/Markus Steur

Mobility – a central dimension of human life
Whether travelling to work or college, going on holiday or getting around in your free time, mobility is a fundamental human requirement and stands for progress, quality of life, and freedom. With increasing wealth and individualization of lifestyles, passenger transport has been increasing in industrialised countries for decades.

Movement in change
A second glance shows, however, that mobility patterns are constantly changing: In industrialised nations we can see first signs of saturation point being reached, for example in car traffic, while long distance passenger transport continues to grow. Emerging economies, on the other hand, are on the cusp of rapid rates of growth: These countries’ populations will increasingly determine the character of global mobility.

Sustainable transport developmen
Increased mobility thus goes hand in hand with social and economic development, although it also has some negative effects, e.g. on the environment and resource consumption. To navigate the resulting tensions, society, business and politics need objective information on current and future developments.

Mobility: the status quo…
Our department carries out numerous empirical studies and analyzes them alongside many other data sets. At the same time, we also research how and why mobility patterns change, for example via transformations in demographics, economic circumstances, values and lifestyles.

…and prospects
Furthermore, we develop models and scenarios to evaluate future passenger transport developments, and are working to improve the methods of measuring mobility. Moreover, we also examine which infrastructural and planning measures may influence mobility patterns and passenger transport, and we forecast their effect. In the same way, we research the potential of new mobility concepts, vehicle types and other innovations, for example in information and communication technology, and analyze their impact on mobility patterns.